GAME REVIEW: Poker Night 2' has fun cast

You’ve just scored a seat at the most exclusive high-stakes poker club in town, but consider yourself forewarned, the clientele can be a little strange.

Developer Telltale Games assembles an eclectic group of video game gamblers from all corners of popular culture with “Poker Night 2” ($5; Mac, PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360). As a mysterious newcomer to the club’s bizarre cast, you’ll stare down from across the felt table the likes of Brock Samson from TV’s “The Venture Bros.,” Ash from the “Evil Dead” films, Sam of “Sam & Max” fame and Claptrap from “Borderlands.”

Just in case that cast list doesn’t raise an eyebrow, everybody’s favorite malevolent artificial intelligence, GlaDOS from “Portal,” is on hand to serve as dealer and dish out copious, biting insults to all in attendance.

It’s a case of fan-service done right, as the beloved characters swap stories and deliver hilarious lines of dialogue, propping up an otherwise bare-bones card game. Even longtime fans of the source material won’t get a lot of mileage out of this one, but the temporary guffaws are well worth the price of admission.

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The poker itself consists of Texas Hold ‘em and Omaha varieties. You can play the odds and win with skill, or try to decipher your opponents’ tells and strike when they have a bad hand. If you suddenly find yourself on a losing streak, try buying a round of beers to make the competition easier to read. Once they’ve busted out, the losers slink off to the bar in the background, where you can watch them drink their sorrows away while the game continues.

Tournaments move at a brisk pace, as opponents are inclined to go all-in at the drop of a hat and the ante rapidly rises. Winning grants you more cash, as well as bonus points that unlock new chips, cards and tables in the theme of each character’s backstory. Selecting entire sets will change the appearance of the club itself and coax new dialogue from the competitors.

Along the way, players will be assigned special tasks known as bounties. Once you complete three random bounties, you’ll get a chance to win a trophy from one of your opponents, which grants avatar gear, bonus items for use in other video games, and console themes.

The extra incentives are appreciated and it’s fun to experiment with the club’s appearance, but a lack of multiplayer severely limits the game’s replay value. You’ll start hearing repeated jokes and stories long before you capture all four trophies. Once you’ve amassed all of the treasures and heard the dialogue, there’s really no reason to continue playing.

It would be easy to accuse “Poker Night 2” of using its characters’ popularity to mask an underwhelming poker simulator. Much like the recent “Citadel” DLC for “Mass Effect 3,” however, carefully crafted dialogue and intelligent humor give this lighthearted what-if scenario genuine appeal. All of the characters stay true to their established personas and the quirks that make them endearing.

Who wouldn’t want to go head-to-head with the chatterbox Claptrap, or be privy to back-and-forth barbs between Samson and a killer robot? When you bust out of a tournament, you have the option to continue watching your opponents battle it out. I had almost as much fun observing the action as I did taking part -- a sign of both the quality of the voice acting and the limited appeal of the poker itself.

“Poker Night 2” is a safe bet for fans of the participating characters. Heck, even if you’re not familiar with the cast, taking a gamble on this amusing mash-up is almost certain to pay off.